Waterfowl. 47 



moving abreast of one another slowly down the length of 

 the meadow towards the end nearest me, where the patch 

 of small trees and brushwood lay. A goose is not as big 

 game as an antelope ; still I had never shot a snow-goose, 

 and we needed fresh meat, so I slipped back over the crest 

 and ran down to the bed of the creek, round a turn of the 

 hill, where the geese were out of sight. The creek was 

 not an entirely dry one, but there was no depth of water 

 in it except in certain deep holes ; elsewhere it was a 

 muddy ditch with steep sides, difficult to cross on horse- 

 back because of the quicksands. I walked up to the trees 

 without any special care, as they screened me from view, 

 and looked cautiously out from behind them. The geese 

 were acting just as our tame geese act in feeding on a 

 common, moving along with their necks stretched out be- 

 fore them, nibbling and jerking at the grass as they tore it 

 up by mouthfuls. They were very watchful, and one or 

 the other of them had its head straight in the air looking 

 sharply round all the time. Geese will not come near any 

 cover in which foes may be lurking if they can help it, 

 and so I feared that they would turn before coming near 

 enough to the brush to give me a good shot. I therefore 

 dropped into the bed of the creek, which wound tortu- 

 ously along the side of the meadow, and crept on all 

 fours along one of its banks until I came to where it made 

 a loop out towards the middle of the bottom. Here there 

 was a tuft of tall grass, which served as a good cover, and 

 I stood upright, dropping my hat, and looking through 

 between the blades. The geese, still in a row, with sev- 

 eral yards' interval between each one and his neighbor, 



